Anyway, back to topic. Now that we’re over 100 games into the 2008 MLB season and former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds is still unsigned by any club, just the mention of his name is sure to grab headlines. And, like him or not, Hank Steinbrenner has already learned the media-suaveness of his father and is using it to his and his team’s advantage.
Chances are every team at one point or another has had someone in their front office make a mention of Bonds. Whether it was in passing, a serious discussion or what-have-you, his name has been brought up in every front office around the league. The only stories we have heard about Bonds up until this point have been, “Nobody is going to sign him” even though everyone has discussed him. And nobody will sign him.
Following their normal annual meeting after the All-Star break at George M. Steinbrenner Field in
"We covered everything, including Bonds."
Genius. Five words that in reality meant nothing but for sports writers meant an article with a headline of “Yankees may bring in Barry Bonds,” “Yankees talk about Bonds,” “Yankees to add Bonds?”
It is the non-story of all non-stories. Instead, they should be writing about how the Yankees are interested in trading for San Francisco Giants catcher Bengie Molina, Seattle Mariners pitcher Jarrod Washburn or Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Xavier Nady. But no, those are reserved for the last two paragraphs, with the prior being about a story that doesn’t exist.
At some point the media changed. It switched from reporting news stories about facts and rumors to reporting and inferring stories from quotes. Steinbrenner easily could have said, ‘We covered everything including trades and free agents.” But he didn’t, because he knew how to get the story, and it only took five words to do so.
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